A group of teens wielding machetes deliberately targeted vulnerable students leaving school the day they abducted a 14-year-old boy and left him with life-altering injuries in Melbourne’s south-east, police say.

The boy remains in hospital and has come out of a six-day induced coma, after three teenagers allegedly assaulted him and put him in a stolen car on September 4 in Glen Huntly, a court was told on Tuesday.

He was dragged along the road at high speed while hanging from a car door for about 150 metres, and suffered bleeding on his brain and swelling around his spinal cord after being thrown from the vehicle and then ran over.

A detective told a children’s court these injuries were “potentially permanent and life-altering” and included issues with his speaking, sight and memory.

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One of three teens charged over the violent after-school attack, a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, applied for bail on Tuesday morning.

But police strongly opposed his release into the community after detailing a series of attacks allegedly committed by the same teens, including driving around in stolen cars, threatening people with machetes and driving into a scooter rider.

“It’s believed they’re all random attacks and these offenders have gone on a spree ... around school time, 2.30 to 4pm window, targeting vulnerable school kids leaving school,” the detective told the court.

“[The boy’s] offending is escalating dramatically and he shows no regard for his victims.”